Beijing looks to attract more overseas visitors

City cooperates with global tour operators to get its assets seen by the outside world

Beijing has made great efforts to expand its tourism market and cooperate with overseas travel agencies to develop more cultural tourism routes for overseas visitors.

From Dec 1 to 8, Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau will launch promotional events in Mexico and the United States to strengthen cultural exchanges with the American markets.

According to the event organizers, the economic and cultural exchanges between China and Mexico have developed rapidly.

In September last year, Hainan Airlines co-hosted promotional events themed "Charm of Beijing" in Mexico City with the bureau. This year is the second time the company joined hands with the bureau to show how charming the capital can be.

The event will not only introduce the latest tourism resources and products of Beijing and the direct flights between Beijing and Mexico City, but will also hold face-to-face talks with Mexican tourists and travel agents.

The delegations will answer the questions that most locals may have, including the city's public service facilities, cultural heritage and protection, shopping tips and visa policies.

To continue to promote cultural exchanges between the two countries, more promotional events of such kind are on the way.

Beijing also plans to expand the tourism market from the US and make efforts to encourage the local travel agencies to promote Beijing's culture and tourist attractions.

According to the event organizers, Beijing will be present at the annual conference of the US Tour Operators Association, which will be held from Dec 3 to 6 in Orlando, Florida.

During the four-day event, the delegation from Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau will participate in the exchange activities, trying to make full use of all available opportunities to promote Beijing's tourism resources.

The city will hold promotional events and introduce Beijing's cultural and tourism resources at the largest annual tourism conference in the US.

In addition to launching promotional events around the world, Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau kicked off the Beijing Tourism Global Distribution Partnership project last year, which is expected to last for three years, in an effort to build a global strategic cooperation system with overseas business insiders to promote the development of inbound tourism.

Last year, Beijing received feedback from 120 global travel agencies who were interested in cooperation with the city. Beijing finally chose to set up a three-year cooperation project with 30 agencies.

The selected agencies include one of the world's largest tourism groups TUI, travel website Expedia, the International Experiences Ltd and LLC from the US, as well as tourism organizations in the countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, such as Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Greece and Vietnam.

To better learn about the demands from overseas travel agencies, Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau communicated with agencies and asked them to put forward tourism promotional plans according to their local conditions and tourists' taste.

Five travel agencies including TUI and Japanese travel agency JTB, were awarded funds of $50,000 each after their plans were accepted.

Wang Hong, vice-mayor of Beijing, said, "The partnership helps to promote the sales of Beijing tourism products in different markets and get effective feedback from the local markets."

In August, the city hosted the second Beijing Tourism Global Distribution Partnership Summit and another 30 global tourism partners were selected.

The representatives of the 60 partnership agencies exchanged views on tourists' preferences for Beijing and market changes at the summit.

Randall Deer, founder and managing director of Ignite Travel Group said that in the past year, the number of Australian tourists to China increased by 50 percent.

He added the reason more tourists were attracted to Beijing is because in addition to popular destinations, Ignite Travel Group provided some unique activities such as visiting the Great Wall at dusk and learning to make dumplings.

According to Cao Pengcheng, deputy director-general of Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau, the city has promoted new routes for the overseas agencies, such as visiting the Temple of Heaven at night, climbing the Great Wall in Beijing Wtown and visiting the 798 art district.

"From this year, Beijing's inbound tourism will also focus on the Winter Olympic Games, traditional Chinese medicine and more culture-immersed programs," Cao said.

(China Daily Global 11/29/2019 page5)